Girls and Computer Science

I am really pleased that so many students at Perins are choosing to follow the OCR GCSE Computing course. Here are the numbers in each GCSE year (the school runs GCSE courses over 3 years):

Year 11: 20 boys / 0 girls

Year 10: 25 boys / 1 girl

Year 9: 38 boys / 2 girls

This is an optional subject, so the increase in numbers year on year is very positive. It is impossible to ignore the gender divide though, and so this academic year I hope to do something to encourage more girls to study Computer Science at our school.

There has always been an argument that girls simply don’t want to do GCSE Computing, but I now have some evidence to the contrary. The girls in these classes are doing very well, and I received this amazing email from a parent recently:

Dear Mr Gardner

My daughter is really enjoying her Computing GSCE and is thinking about a possible career in IT. I wondered if you know whether there are any opportunities to do work experience at IBM Hursley, and if so, who would be the best person to contact? Thanks very much.

There is hope, and so I am going to develop some intervention strategies over the next few months to see if we can encourage more girls into GCSE Computing. Once they are in, I’m sure they’ll be hooked!